Urges, Needs and Desires

We all have natural urges, needs (personal, familial, social), and desires. Lets begin by understanding what they mean and how they are different from each other.

a. Need: essential for survival and functioning. Non-fulfilment may lead to imbalance, illness and death. Needs are objective and universal in nature. For example: Air, water, food, and shelter

[Refer Maslow's hierarchy of needs for more details].

b. Desire: A strong wish that is optional. It usually enhances quality of life and provides a sense of satisfaction. Non-fulfillment may result in disappointment but is not harmful or fatal. A desire is subjective and personal in nature. For example: luxury car, expensive clothing etc.

c. Urge: a sudden strong impulse to act triggered by circumstances, environment, habits, and patterns.  It is often transient in nature and independent of desire.

Needs, desires, and urges are diverse and an individual is usually not equipped to achieve all of them on his/her own. Interdependence is the key to fulfill them and energy exchange is one related process. Energy exchange can occur in multiple ways, for example paying money in response to services received. 

Ever increasing demand (individuals attempting to fulfill their urges/needs/desires) and limited availability of resources (natural and man-made), limited access to resources, and limited sources of energy result in a demand supply gap. Unintended consequences arise when individuals have diverse opinions/perspectives on the rules that govern everyone's conduct in the face of demand-supply gap. They may perceive the demand-supply gap either as a threat (Fight, Flight, Silence) or challenge (Constructive and creative response, Silence). This perception might be new or might trigger and reinforce a pre-existing stress perception. Individuals may either respond, react or remain silent in the face of this stress experience. This depends on the evolutionary state of their soul, age, education, circumstantial desperation, experience, upbringing, culture. Maturity level of an individual determines whether silence is an outcome of suppression of emotions (Avoiding) or is a balanced expression emerging out of awareness, understanding (Accommodating). Similarly, maturity also determines whether an individual provides a suppressed response (Avoiding) or balanced and assertive response (Collaborating). Finally, maturity levels also determine whether an individual reacts to the stress by Fighting it out (Competing), Running away (Avoiding) and Freezing (Monkey mind).

References:

1. Maslow, Abraham H. (1943). "A theory of human motivation". Psychological Review. 50 (4): 370–396. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.334.7586. doi:10.1037/h0054346. hdl:10983/23610.